Brady, Pats get back in the swing of things

With their veteran signal caller at the helm for the first time since he went down with a season-ending knee injury last Sept. 7, the Patriots kick off training camp with a double session in Foxboro.

Glen Farley

The initial training camp practice began with applause that, while rather loud, fell somewhat short of thunderous.

The initial training camp practice came to an abrupt halt with thunder and lightning.

“No,” veteran New England Patriots running back Kevin Faulk answered when asked if he’d ever been chased off a football field by thunder and lightning before. “I try not to let that happen too often.”

With Tom Brady taking the field to a round of applause from the thousands in attendance, the Patriots kicked off training camp Thursday morning with a weather-abbreviated practice on the fields behind Gillette Stadium.

The team returned in the afternoon, completing the first of the seven straight days of double sessions head coach Bill Belichick has scheduled as the outset of camp.

“I get excited just to get back out there and get started,” said Greg Lewis, the veteran wide receiver the Patriots acquired in an offseason deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, “but once you hit the field that ‘Man, this is training camp again’ (feeling) sort of hits you, but you still want to go out there and just have fun and make the most of each opportunity that you get to go out there on the field.

“A lot of people don’t get the opportunity to play in the NFL, to play for the New England Patriots. You’re privileged and you need to act like it and go out there and work hard, have fun, and just make the most of everything.”

In the wake of a year that saw Brady sent to the sidelines early (a season-ending left knee injury suffered in the opener with Kansas City) and the rest of the team relegated there later (an 11-5 record left them out of the playoffs for the first time since 2002), high hopes and expectations surround Foxboro once again these days.

“Anytime you have your best player on the team back, it’s a great thing,” wide receiver Wes Welker said, “so we’re happy to have him back, obviously, along with many of the other guys that were hurt before the season was over.”

Clearly, though, the main man is Brady, the remnants of the tears of the left anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments he suffered in that 17-10 season-opening win over KC at Gillette last Sept. 7 a black brace that extends beyond the left leg of his uniform pants.

A previously scheduled interview with the media scrapped when the thunder, lightning and heavy rains intervened (that session was postponed until today), Brady’s teammates were left to speak for him on Thursday.

Asked to assess the franchise quarterback in the aftermath of an eventful offseason in which Brady rehabbed his knee and got married to superrmodel Gisele Bundchen, Faulk said: “Same Tom Brady.

“I know I got married a few years ago, too, but nobody talked about that,” Faulk quipped. “(He’s) the same guy.”

“Tom’s Tom,” veteran linebacker Pierre Woods concurred.

Said Welker: “We’ve been through minicamps. We’ve seen him then. I’ve been working with him this whole offseason, so it’s no surprise how he’s able to come out there and kind of get in the flow of things pretty early on.” With virtually every move he made — why, mere lobs to ball boys elicited applause — Brady moved about the field like he’d never stepped off it.

“I just like his attitude, his command of the huddle, his fire and his competitiveness,” said Lewis. “I like to compete a lot and I like to win at everything I do.

“To have a guy out there that’s doing that same thing, that’s trying to get the best of his guys, his team, that just makes you want to give it all you’ve got and lay it on the line for him and the other guys. It just gives you that burst or that feel that ‘I want to go out there and get it don’t because this guy is giving everything he’s got and I want to do the same.’”

Said running back Fred Taylor, the lifelong Jacksonville Jaguar the Patriots signed following his offseason release from the team: “Playing these guys a few times here in the playoffs, you look over and you’re like, ‘Ah, we can go and beat that team. What do they do that we can’t do? We can go and win this game,’

“And when you get here, you see his passion, you see the way he studies, you see how demanding he is of his players and the leadership, and right in front of you, it just jumps out and you see why he’s a proven winner.”

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